Translation is a Love Affair
Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin
This is the story of a writer and his translator. A young woman arrives in Quebecois to meet a writer with a bad back, a cat with an SOS message attached to his collar, and a little girl who loves animals just like she does. The journey is a take on love, of a different kind of love than the romance of feelings met and encouraged-but one where the desires are known, yet never spoken. The translator, and the writer join forces on books, memories and most mysterious of all the search for the owner of the cat with the secret message.
Poulin consumes the reader in this modern love story where love is time, time is slow and a cry for help is all that one needs to jump out of their own life to reach into another’s nightmare. Goodness it is breathtaking!! If you don’t mind thinking as you read versus the modern novelist gibber that so many are pumping out these days-this read will make you think, make you wonder and amaze you with its richness.
A publisher at Archipelago sent me this book a while back telling me that I would like it. I have yet to doubt anything that comes from that press. The skill of Archipelago strikes again with the decision to translate this modern-day gem. I followed Jacques Poulin page after page and marveled at the excellent translation by Sheila Fischman. Pick this one up, it is art inside a pretty cover. I recommend it for those looking for an artistic and rare approach to the meaning of love with mystery tucked inside. Enjoy!
Archipelago Books I have reviewed:
Plants Don’t Drink Coffee
Mourior
The Vanishing Moon
Sarajevo Marlboro
The Waitress Was New
Moving Parts
- ISBN: 9780981955704
- Author: Poulin, Jacques
- Publisher: Archipelago Books
- Translator: Fischman, Sheila
- Subject: Literary
- Copyright: 2009
- Publication Date: November 2009
- Binding: Paperback
- Language: English
- Pages: 144



















